Just when I thought the season was nearing the end and I might be able to catch up on sleep and other parts of my life, the last summer litters of babies started to arrive! Here are the stories on a few of them.

This is Bunchowski. He is an Eastern cottontail, and came to me at only 4 days old. He's about 3 1/2 weeks old now. Anyone who has been following this blog knows how incredibly difficult it is to keep these tiny ones alive, but Bunchowski was a real fighter! However, like my other tiny ones that survived to this age, it appears that he may be a victim of metabolic bone disease; his right arm broke a week ago (you can see it wrapped up in the picture) after jumping a few inches. But he is bright and alert and is almost weaned and LOVES cilantro! He is almost 4oz.

And this little lady is a Southern Flying squirrel. Her name is Lady Sedgwick and she weights 20g, or about 2/3 of an oz. Baby flyers are a funny shape- they are about 1/3 head, 1/2 tail, and have a little body in between. She was found when a cat walked up to its owner with her tail hanging out of its mouth. She suffered a few injuries, and is now on antibiotics and is doing really well. If you all remember, Amelia, my last little flyer, came to me with suspected neurological problems. And comparing Lady's behavior to Amelia's at the same age (she is about 4-5 weeks old) confirms this: Lady is so much more "with it" at this age, and has even decided to wean herself!

And these two cuties are 4-5 week old Grey squirrels. They are "Soixante neuf" (on the right) and "Soixante dix," or 69 & 70- their patient numbers (but it sounded so much better in French!)- and were both found wandering on their own flea ridden and thin. 69 is a little girl. And the day she came in, 70 arrived later that day. They are not related, but the same size and instantly snuggled and adopted each other as siblings! After only 24 hours of warmth, snuggling and TLC, their tails started fluffing up! :)

WTS also welcomed another little Virginia Opossum. She was in a wonderful local bakery/lunch place for a week raiding jelly bellies. And she arrived with green poop to proove it! She had some bad abrasions around her neck, but they look OK. She'll stay for a few weeks to get her nutrition back on track and to grow a bit bigger before release.

I am excited to announce that I now have my federal US bird permit to rehabilitate all birds! It only took 8 months to get it after sending the application in January (!). One needs a federal permit for birds because they cross state lines, especially during migration. can you believe it?!

This little fellow was caught by the neighbour's cat. It was unclear what species he was- so hard to tell with little ones before their feathers come in. He looked to me like a Wood Trush, though may have been an American Robin. The cat's owner felt terrible and rushed it here right away. He was very hungry and for the first few days had to be fed every 15 minutes from sun up til sun down. I made a special baby bird food and also gave him soaked puppy chow and some berries.

I also put a mirror next to his "nest" once he opened his eyes so he would get used to seeing his own species, even if it was only himself!

But sadly, the little guy didn't make it. It's hard ot know what killed him. He may have aspirated some food  into his lungs and contracted pnemonia, or there may have been internal injuries- his abdomen was a very dark colour, which may have indicated internal bleedingIt's hard ot know, but I'm glad that he had a last few quiet and warm days here.

A few days later I received a Ring Bill Gull with a terribly broken wing and he had to be put down. I hope that WTS has beeter luck with birds from now on!!

But the good news is that the neighbour has now put a bell on her cat's collar, which gives wildlife a better chance. See the WTS webpage on Cats & Wildlife for more information!

Little Amelia has finally taken flight. For all of you who have not been following her story, she is a Southern Flying Squirrel and came to me at just 20g as a baby. When she left she was over 60g and was so happy to be free. I miss her and really worry about her, but I know that she is happy to be flying through the forest!

I was worried about this little gal as she had real problems "flying" (not really flying, it's actually gliding, which they do by spreading out their arms and legs, making the loose skin between them spread out like wings). And several big leaps ended up in her plopping to the ground despite flying lessons- where we practiced flying by her being thrown into the air! She also couldn't seem to figure out how to run on her wheel (seen below sitting on top of it). I thought that perhaps any neural damage she had sustained as a baby might have impaired her abilities.

However, I learned that not all flying squirrels actually do fly/glide! Slowly, she became better and better at running and leaping and was soon getting around the house like a little superstar at top speed. And she began to use her wheel quite well. And then I knew it was time to send her on her way.

I wish her all the best and she know she can always come back if she needs to. I've heard some flying squirrels "talking" late at night from my window and wonder whether it might be her. She was really a dearheart to have as a patient. Goodbye little sweet Amelia and fly well!

So what's happened to all the Wild Things Cottontails??? Well if that's the question you're interested in, this is the post for you!

Sadly, as previously discussed, bunnies are some of the hardest baby animals to raise in wildlife rehabilitation. They have particular dietary and digestive issues which it is almost impossible to replicate as a human! However, WTS has had about half of all its bunny patients survive. All of the bunnies that were 12+ days did really well and have been released, but as you all know, I got so many tiny babies, and those have a less favourable statistic of survival.

An exception to this high mortality rate was Silver Blaze & her sibling Sparkles. If you go back to the posts in May, you can see that they arrived at about 5 days old, and Sparkles (or Catattack as she was previously known) had a giant gash along one arm. Amazingly not only did they survive the injuries, but they survived their rehabilitation and are doing great! To the right is a picture of Silver Blaze in the release hutch.

Here is the lovely Silver Blaze, about 3 weeks after her release, in the overgrown grasses of WTS. She is about 12 weeks old in this picture. The release cage is to the right, and she often goes in and out of it, looking for oats and other goodies.

She has been joined by another long-term WTS resident: Pale Pink! Pale Pink's nose finally healed, and here he is in the release cage 6 weeks ago (below) at about 11 weeks old. He left but returned 4 weeks later- perhaps he's taken a  fancy to the lovely Silver Blaze! Though they were both here for a couple of months each, they never met....until they were released. And now they are together all the time. Of course, he also may have returned because he has what appears to be some ugly botfly larvae in his neck (see pictures below)!

And guess what??? The 4th wave of baby bunnies has just begun! There are about 4 "waves" of litters throughout the spring & summer. So that means that there may well be more babies at WTS very soon!! Just like this little Bunchalicious who was part of the 3rd wave!

Virginia Opossums may only live for 2 years, which means they need to grow up fast! Females are reproductively mature by 6 months, and males by 8 months. Mister H. Lecter is a great example of this. Just take a look at how fast he has grown! He came in about 6 weeks ago just 100g and is now over 600g and will be released soon. Go Lecter! (didn't necessarily want to put in all those half-asleep pictures of ME, but it DOES offer a scale!)

In addition to special formula, though he is now weaned, the opossums at WTS receive quite delectable dishes of fresh fruit, kitten chow soaked in apple juice, dry kitten & ferret food, fresh veggies, eggs (both raw & hard boiled), and mouse. Just take a look at what came by post the other day- 250 frozen weanling (i.e., weaned but young- which have the perfect balance of protein & calcium) mice.

A big thank you to all those who have made donations, as it is almost 75cents/mouse (shipping included) and I go through about 10/day- that adds up fast!! And, btw, cutting up mice for opossum dinners, is maybe one of the worst jobs at WTS. :( But the opossums love them, and so goes the circle of life :)

And just to end on a slightly more palatable note- palatable to humans at any rate... here's a cute picture of the male Downy woodpecker feeding his begging son at my feeder. Poor Pops looked bedraggled, and his son looked so fluffy and chubby. What a good dad! 

These young European Starlings were found in someone's yard and clearly not ready to be on their own. Their parents were no where in sight, nor was a nest, so it's a bit of a mystery as to how 2 pre-fledgling birds ended up where they did.

Starlings are not native to the US and many consider them a pest species....but it's not their fault!

To begin with they were fed every 10 minutes which certainly kept me busy! But they grew and grew and slowly started to look like real little birds!

When they have to poop, young birds still in the nest will squidge their bums over the edge & squirt it out of the nest. This heps keep the nest clean. You can see their projectile poo here behind their little human-made nest!

(NB: Unless you know for certain what nest a young bird came from, it is best to make a fake nest for them, as nests can harbor parasites and diseases. In a rehabilitation setting I always make nests which ensures the babies are kept clean and healthy).

Finally these little ones were big enough to start to fly (the "fledgling" stage). I brought them to a fellow rehabber in the north of NYState who has a great flight area for birds. At the moment it looks like a baby bird kindergarten: baby jays, orioles, pigeons, doves, robins, and now starlings, all together learning to fly!

The little starlings learned to fly and have become big and strong. They were just released with great chances for success!

Who can forget Little Sister? She was one of the first patients at WTS, and arived with her brother. They were about 6-7 weeks old.

They were successfully released in mid-May, but still come by for snacks, as mentioned in the previous blog post, this is natural as young squirrels depend on their mums at this time of year.

But Little Sister always chewed a little bit strangely, and she was very aggressive (discussed a few posts ago). I brought her to the vets when she was about 3 1/2 months old for suspected teeth issues- about 6 weeks ago- and she got the all clear.

This is how she turned up yesterday:

As you can see her incisors, or front teeth, are horribly deformed. It is called a "malocclusion;" normally in rodents, whose teeth never stop growing, the bottom & top incisors rub against each other and naturally wear each other down. But if they are misaligned, they aren't worn down but continue growing, and this is what you have here. The animal can die a painful death of starvation and the teeth will even grow into the brain case.

In Little Sister's case, one bottom tooth had pierced the roof of her mouth, and the other, the one on the outside that you can see here, had caused a sore on her cheek. Her upper teeth had grown in a circle and were about the pierce her skull.

She was a flea-ridden skeleton and incredibly weak and massively dehydrated (you can see her folds of skin that are all folded up as they aren't plumped up by the body's water content). I suspected that her teeth were becoming maloccluded from a breif look a few weeks ago and I tried to catch her with no luck. Then I didn't see her for the last 10 days and assumed that she had gone into the forest to die. But she turned up last night and was so weak that I was able to catch her....though not without her protesting the best she could.

The vet was able to trim her teeth today, and the Xray looked like her jaw joint was OK, but the jaw clearly want to go to one side...whether this is because the muscles are strained by the teeth, or there is a soft tissue injury that caused the malocclusion the first place is unknown.There is no way of knowing if her teeth will grow straight again. If they don't she will not be able to be released. But for now she will stay at WTS for several months so that I can keep an eye on her.

However, as mentioned, she is so agressive (probably because she has always been on some degree of pain), that if I can't handle her to treat her, it is uncertain whether she will be able to be looked after. As such, I have decided to try my best to "train' her to some degree so I will be able to handle her as needed over the coming months. This way I will be able to check her teeth, give her medication, nurse her, etc...

She is on a special diet of warm peanut flavoured formula, applesauce, small banana slices among other things. It was a real joy to see her able to eat a piece of banana today after the vets.

Menawhile, speaking of squirrel food, here's a cute picture of Lil'Mo at her breakfast platter!

And one last picture- this is a scene of a squirrel break-in at WTS! Amazing how they went straight for the walnuts (seen here spilled on floor)- they found them and pushed the jar over the counter and it opened to reveal is luxury cache!

Lil'Mo has grown up into quite a lovely & smart little squirrel. She is lovely with a bushy tail and a very unique red coloring, so she is very easy to spot. A few weeks ago I started the release process and now she lives in the WTS woods, and stops by for breakfast & from time-to-time just to play. As a singleton and  being born so late in the early season (squirrels will usually have more babies in August), I'm happy to play with her a bit and know that this will not affect her success in the wild. It's important for her emotional well being and for learning motor skills.

I am also happy to provide her with breakfast as at this time of year young squirrels depend on their mother for her cached nuts (the spring buds have passed and the nuts are not out yet). She gets a breakfast platter of a bowl of formula (she doesn't need to nurse anymore as she can lap it up relatively well), and a selection of nutes & grapes. But NO PEANUTS & SUNFLOWER seeds. These rob the body of calcium and in young squirrels can lead to metabolic bone disease. Sadly, as people see wild squirrels eat these foods at birdfeeders, they will feed young squirrels the same. Wild adult squirrels will naturally balance their diet with wild foods, but the young won't especially if they are in captivity and can only eat what they are offered. Last week a rehab friend got a young squirrel whose legs were literally curving as the bones bent under the body's weight. Hoepfully afer a few weeks on a calcium rich diet and in the proper cage set-up, this squirrel will heal, but only time will tell.

In this picture Lil'Mo is eating a walnut.

But she also quite likes to hunt the moths on my window screens! I have never seen any other squirrels doing this, but I assume it is a great source of nutrients. She has also started to bury her own nuts and I am so proud of her! I wonder if this is instinct, or if she learned it  from the wild squirrels. The first time I gave her a brazil nut, she took it, hopped away, buried it, and placed a leaf on top, patting it down so that the nut was nice and safe. Adorable!

Speaking of moths, look at this beauty who appeared in my house the other morning. Anyone know what type it is??

Total number of patients so far: 63
Still here: 19 (13 opossums, 1 groundhog, flying squirrel, bunny, chipmunk & a few others. All but one appear to be on a very good road to recovery & release!)
Released: 19 (3 gray squirrels, 3 chipmunks, 11 bunnies, a yellow spotted salamander & a flying squirrel)
Transferred: 3 (the blind fawn, 2 starlings)
Died (including DOA): 19 (a woodland vole, chipmunk, mourning dove, 5 shrews & 11 bunnies)
Euthanized: 3

Stay tuned for details on some of the patients that are still here...